Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1887-03-03
ADVANTAGES OF soUrHERS MARY.

ADVANTAGES or SOUTHERN MARY
LASD.-A contribution from the pen
Of DR.. a. II. Bean, Of st. Inigo's to the
BEACON, OF February 10th, has called
forth the following sensible and vigor-
Gus comments from the Cecil Democrat:
There can be no longer hoodwink-
ing Of the inevitable conviction that
the tillers of the soil have got TO bet
ter themselves to avoid getting left in
the race for success, if not for livelihood
itself The praiIies Of the West may
be a blessing to the people generally;
bat to the farmer Of the Atlantic coast
the blessing is so much disguised that
It's recognition is very difficult. Their
boundless resource as producers of the
cereals has made the culture OF wheat,
corn and oats losing business in these
parts, and farmers will have to find
other means of boiling the pot, or go
hungry to bed. That the cultivation
Of fruits and vegetables whose perish
able nature requires them to be early
consumed. is a possible resource, is true.
But, it must be admitted that in some
respects the profitable growth of these
is thing of the past. Peaches are
certainly not as successful now as
they were generation ago, hereabouts;
and it may be that other esculents will
in as short a time wear out the soil
that now produces them. In such
emergency, tie question is natural
What shall we turn to? Must the
farmer 90 West, to risk other soil and
leave his native heath to the bramble?
Or will he rather try other means 10
rebuild the waste places and re fertil-
ize the spots made barren by excessive
erroneous cultivation? 1t would seem
less risky and easier to exercise the
faculties, in restoring the home, that
will be necessary in any event to fight
the wilderness of the West. The diff
ficu!ty with which the farmer has ever
TO contend is the exhaustion of the soil.
However generous Mother Earth may
lie, there is limit to her resources.
The tiller who takes all from the soil
that bounteous life will yield, and
keeps on taking year after year, will
certainly get the last tribute even.
tuaily. Neither does it appear that
any amount Of food supply can always
Ieplenish exhausting vitality. 1t is a
marked fact that the generous soil of
Cecil and its neighbors requires an
ever increasing stimulent to produce
the crops that used to spring from their
own bounty. 1t is equally true and a
familiar fact to the farmer that no
amount of fertiizing will make lands
produce after many years what they
originally revealed in. The peach
crop, for instance, forty years ago
iourished hereabouts with all the Wig
or Of an indigenous growth. Farmers
grew suddenly rich in the culture OF
The peach. Nowadays the soil that
once seemed to blush in the pride OF
its fertility is "sickled over with the
pale cast Of yellows. And no rem
edy has been devised or discovered
What shall be done? Manifestly try
other soil that has not been ravished
bv the peach. Appeal to other soils
that may find relief from the wasteless
exhaustion Of the tobocco in fructify-
ing the cereal.-Who may say that the
worn out lands of Charles, St. Mary
and Calvert, that have literally pinned
away in the madhouses Of tobacco riot,
may not be the garden spot of the
peach and the generous producer of
wheat and corn al paving prices? We
think that the part OF wisdom would
be served by turning attention to the
lands Of Southern Maryland which
nature has done so much to bless and
man has tried so madly to curse"